


Cirion

by nossraiths



Series: Wood and Water [3]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Bardolas, M/M, bard is smitten, legolas is an ice princess, tilda just wants to brush everyone's hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-23
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 19:08:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1149723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nossraiths/pseuds/nossraiths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I had heard that there was a treasure sunk here.”<br/>Bard takes his children sailing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cirion

Legolas was standing surefooted on the prow of the barge to the delighted horror of the children.

“You’re going to fall!” Sigrid predicted, twisting her fingers in her skirt.

“Don’t be stupid,” Bain scoffed.

“Bain,” Bard warned, and his oldest turned to look at him. Bard laid his finger alongside his nose and nodded towards Legolas, then patted the rudder. Tilda was too enraptured by the elf prince to notice her siblings’ amusement.

“Da, can we go over there?” Sigrid asked suddenly, and Legolas turned to see where she was pointing. Bard leaned hard on the rudder and the barge angled sharply in the water. Legolas stumbled backwards, windmilling his arms, and fell head-over-heels into the lake.

“And well met, Master Elf!” Bard called, setting the rudder to rest and joining his children at the side of the boat. The water was disturbed where Legolas had gone in, but there was no other sign.

“Da, he can’t swim!” Tilda shrieked.

“He’ll be up in a moment,” Bard assured her. Yet Legolas’s sleek golden head did not break the surface of the water for one minute, then another. The ripples and bubbles on the water dispersed and Bain turned nervously towards him.

“Da, do you think—?”

Bard stripped off his coat and tugged at the laces of his boots, leaving them in a pile on the deck of the barge. He stepped up onto the side railing and dove into the lake.

In the dark cold water there was no sign of Legolas, though he pushed down into the depths until his chest and ears ached. In the far dim distance Smaug's jeweled belly glittered in watery sunshine.

He broke the water’s surface again with a gasp and the first thing he heard was the laughter of his children.

“Are you fishing, Lord Bard?” Legolas’s voice asked, and he paddled around to look up at the barge. Legolas was standing at the side, his eyes wide and guileless and curious.

“I had heard that there was a treasure sunk here,” Bard replied, wiping his hand over his face.

“If it is treasure you seek, perhaps you should take your coat and boots,” Legolas said over the children’s giggling, reaching down behind the barge’s rail.

“Don’t dare, you pointy-eared schemer,” Bard warned. Legolas offered him his hand and heaved him up onto the deck of the barge.

“That water is freezing,” Bard said, “Damn you, Legolas, I thought you had drowned.”

“For a man of the Lake, you are a poor steersman,” Legolas countered, “Did we strike something beneath the water that made the barge turn as it did?”

Bard flung his head back and laughed. Despite the chill of the day and his wet clothes the sun was warm and bright, his children were with him, and the damned insufferable elf was looking at him with arched dark brows in spite of his dripping clothing and bedraggled hair.

They docked the barge in its customary place and the children ran ahead of them. Legolas carried Bard’s coat and boots in his hands, apparently untroubled by the biting wind from the Mountain.

“Your people are blessed indeed,” Bard said through chattering teeth, and Legolas turned him aside and kissed him solidly on the mouth, settling his coat over his shoulders.

“You will be warm again soon enough, Lord Bard,” he assured him.

~~~

Warm as promised beneath the furs and blankets, Bard ran lazy fingers through the precious spun gold of Legolas’s hair.

“ _Man cerig_?” Legolas asked, turning onto his back. His eyes were bright and clear, but already glazing back into sleep.

“I have to see to my children,” Bard replied, “Go to sleep.”

“ _Ego_ ,” Legolas said, and Bard slipped out of the bed and into his clothes. He went downstairs to the family room; Bain was drawing in a pad of paper and Tilda and Sigrid were playing with Tilda’s dolls.

“That was fun this morning, on the lake,” Sigrid told him without looking up. “Do you like Master Legolas, Da?”

“Yes, I like him,” Bard agreed. “Is it a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Good,” Sigrid replied, “You laughed today.”

“Aye, and a rare occurrence that is,” Bard said lightly, bending to kiss the crown of her head. Sigrid’s face remained deadly serious.

“Rare enough, before the burning of Laketown,” she agreed. “After Ma.”

Bain looked up from his papers and Tilda paused in the dancing of her dolls to look up at him.

“I like him too,” she said loyally. “He has pretty hair. Do you think he would let me play with it?”

“I think you would have to ask him,” Bard replied tactfully. “Perhaps if he comes back for supper.”

“Are we expecting him for supper?” Sigrid asked.

“Have I exhausted my welcome?” Legolas wondered, closing the front door softly behind him.

“Legolas!” Tilda cried, “Legolas, Da says I can braid your hair!”

Legolas looked at Bard with narrow eyes as he sat down on the floor within Tilda’s short reach.

She plaited his hair into a messy ropelike braid over his shoulder and made him wear it through dinner. To his credit Legolas did not complain, though in bed that night Bard laughed until his sides ached. Legolas shook his pale hair loose around his face and stooped over him.

“ _Avo bedo_ ,” he ordered, kissing the smile from Bard’s lips.

“You like me?” Bard blurted when they had parted, and Legolas propped himself up to look at Bard with narrowed eyes. Bard knew immediately that he had made a fool of himself, his hands clammy and his face hot; he hadn’t felt both things at once since the day he asked Bryn to marry him. Legolas remained statue-still for a long slow moment and then tilted his head to one side.

“Yes,” he agreed. “I like you.” Bard sensed rather than saw the corners of his mouth turn up in a smile.

“Oh,” Bard said. “Well. That’s—“

“Good, I should think,” Legolas replied. “It is important, that I like you?”

“Aule’s bones, Legolas,” Bard growled, “If you don’t know, I’m hardly going to explain.”

Legolas planted his elbow in Bard’s ribs.

“I did not say I didn’t understand,” he countered, “I only asked why it was important. Did they not teach respect in Laketown?“

“Is it important?” Bard asked mildly.

His first lesson in elvish respect was well taught and equally well received.

**Author's Note:**

> Bard's lovely wife was not graced with a canonical name, so I gave her one: Bryn. It's pretty and also comes from the Old Norse "brynja," which means "armour/coat of mail/protection." 
> 
> Elvish is as follows:  
> Cirion (title): sailor  
> Man cerig?: What is it?  
> Ego: Leave/go  
> Avo bedo: Shut up/be quiet (how rude)
> 
> P.S. I am dead serious if someone wants to write hanky-panky for me you just LET ME KNOW, SON


End file.
